At the beginning of this trip when we'd posted about it on social media, one of Lisette's friends and former coworkers, Jessica, had reached out to ask if we were coming to Chicago, so we could catch up when we were here. Lisette hadn't seen Jessica for over 11 years(!) so she was really looking forward to seeing her again after such a long time!
Farmers Market
We woke up to what turned out to be stunningly perfect weather to be exploring the city. And naturally, there were people everywhere in the park in the morning, as it turned out that we were parked right next to the Saturday farmer's market. There were kids riding their scooters as their parents walked alongside them, couples with bags of fresh produce in their tote bags, and a ton of folks going for their morning jog or run.
Lisette wanted to try some food from Kasama, the first Filipino restaurant to receive a Michelin Star, when we were in Chicago last time, but it was a bit out of our way when we were here prior (we stayed mostly near downtown as we didn't have a car, and we ran out of time to head over). They have a fine dining menu for dinner, but also are open during the day when they sell pastries, breakfast sandwiches, Filipino dishes and drinks. We'd arranged to order food online for pickup as soon as they opened at 9am, so that Jessica could swing by as it was near her home to get it, and then head over to meet us near Lincoln Park.
When Lisette ordered though, thanks to the busy weekend with events like Lollapalooza, the order wouldn't be available until noon! Except... a couple of hours later Lisette realized that she'd made an error, and it was actually only going to be available at 2pm!! That changed our plans, and we ended up meeting Jessica around 12.30pm at our RV (so we could also collect some items that we'd shipped to her place--THANK YOU Jessica! The downsides of not having a fixed address when ecommerce is sometimes the only option).
Downtown Chicago Highlights
Since Kasama was closing at 3pm ahead of its dinner service, we headed immediately downtown, walking along the paths next to Lake Michigan to get there. The weather was just perfect, so there were people running, walking, and cycling on the paths, while by the water people were sunbathing, swimming, playing beach volleyball, or simply chilling out. It was a great walk to also catch up with Jessica--since she's not one to post updates on social media, there was a lot to share and get updates on!
But first, coffee! We walked down Michigan Avenue downtown, which was jammed with people! The sidewalks were packed with folks walking in both directions, to get into shops or cafes. Michael has a Nespresso pod every morning (and the occasional second coffee in a day), and he had none left, and timing worked out well for us to restock in Chicago (perhaps unsurprisingly, it's not easy to find Nespresso coffee pods in places like Arkansas and rural Iowa). Michael stocked up with enough to likely last the rest of the trip, which also scored us a free portable coffee mug/flask. Woohoo to "free" stuff!
We then walked to Lucent, a dazzling sculpture (literally), made of 3,115 lights to symbolize the number of stars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The sculpture has thousands of glass bulbs fed through fiber-optic lines, and it's a bit of an optical illusion as the ceiling above it makes it seem that the structure is perfectly spherical when the art piece is only actually half a sphere. There's also a pool of water directly beneath it, continuing to add to the glistening display. We didn't find it immediately, so it's best to ask someone working there for directions.
We had to get onto the "Magnificent Mile" (a stretch of Michigan Avenue) for our next stop, and wow--that street had the most intense foot traffic. It turns out that a Harry Potter shop opened a few months ago in Chicago, adding to the hustle and bustle. There was a long line of people who were snaking around the block waiting to get in. We had no plans to enter, but a man in the queue misunderstood us as we walked past, yelling to Michael that it was "only 15 minutes"(!) wait!
It still took us about that time--or maybe longer--to get to the Tribune Tower, with a brief stop to see the pretty views of the Chicago River and people out on boats enjoying being out on the water, as well as jostling plenty of people, including a long line of folks waiting to get into the Ulta Beauty store.
It took us a while to find them, but on the walls of the Tribune Tower, there are over 150 fragments from famous structures and historic sites around the world are embedded in Tribune Tower's first story walls. The tradition began in 1914 when the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune was covering WWI and took a piece of a medieval cathedral in Ypres, France that had been damaged by a German shelling. Today, the Tribune has fragments from the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the World Trade Center, the Berlin Wall, and many others. It's incredible that they're withstanding the elements around the building!
Filipino Food Time
By this time, we had only about 30 minutes until Kasama closed ahead of dinner service, so the 4 of us took an Uber out to Kasama, arriving with only a couple of minutes to spare. Jessica had ordered longanisa (sweet Filipino sausage) breakfast sandwich (the best breakfast sandwiches in the city), while Michael/Lisette planned to share a mushroom adobo. Lisette hadn't seen the pastries on the online menu, but was bummed to see that the ube/huckleberry basque cake and the matcha pandan eclair were unavailable. It must have been meant to be though, because these pastries were available in store, yay! So we added these, and a chocolate and salted caramel tart to our order.
Everything we ate was delicious! We were so glad to be able to try it while in Chicago, probably Lisette most of all. Filipino food is underrated and doesn't always appeal to mainstream palettes, but Kasama's flavors, textures and fusion dishes are doing it right and hopefully there'll be more Filipino restaurants that are just as successful.
It turns out that we had driven right near this neighborhood last night, but we'd missed seeing the "Shit Fountain," designed to send a clear message to dog owners to pick up after their dogs! Fortunately, we didn't see any actual dog poop littered around us, so perhaps this fountain has been very effective.
In fact, as we strolled from here towards the Wicker Park neighborhood, the walk is lovely, as we were "house watching" (rather than "people watching") and marveling at all the pretty (and presumably very expensive) homes that we walked past. There were very well maintained homes and yards, including a beautiful fenced garden by the curb of one house with the biggest bright pink and pale pink hibiscus flowers we'd ever seen (Jessica mentioned she'd planted them for us jokingly, so thanks Jessica for this pretty addition to our trip)! We're not big fans of the cold, but we're sure we'd happily brave a winter to live in one of these homes for a while--they'd likely be very well insulated too!
In the heart of Wicker Park is Myopic Books, on streets that could have easily looked like they were in the North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco. The bookstore has several stories of used and hard-to-find titles. Lisette had to stop herself from browsing to deeply, as we definitely don't need to add to our book collection at the moment!
After this stop, we said goodbye to Jessica, as we went in opposite directions. We had such a fun time catching up, and are so happy that we had a few hours together after not seeing each other for an eon! Hopefully this will mean our next reunion won't be anywhere near as long!
An Aussie Store in Chicago
Rather than catch the bus or take a rideshare back to our RV in Lincoln Park, we figured we'd explore further on foot. Imagine our surprise when along the way, we saw King Living, an Aussie furniture store that we used to live near in Sydney with furniture that we loved, in Chicago! Naturally we had to go in, and learned that they'd just opened a couple of stores in the US, and are also in Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and China. Clearly we've been away for a while! Maybe one day we can get that famous Jasper sofa that we'd been eyeing back in 2011...
Oz Park and Lollapalooza
Once we got back to the RV, even Sheila, our active cattle dog, seemed pretty tired! After a brief rest, we left Sheila for a brief visit to the nearby Oz Park, which features sculptures from the Wizard of Oz. We spotted Dorothy and Toto, the Scarecrow (who looked rather creepy, no birds are landing on this statue), the Tin Man, and the Scaredy Lion.
That evening, we were talking about Lollapalooza and we'd definitely see Rüfüs Du Sol, an Aussie group, if we had tickets. It turns out that they were going on stage tonight, and it was in about an hour! Lisette didn't feel like it, so Michael rode his eBike downtown to see if he could hear them. It turned out, that he could! There were fences blocking off entrance, but on the other side of the road people could see a bit of the screen broadcasting Rüfüs Du Sol's performances, so folks were sitting down to watch them. Not a bad way to end a full day in Chicago!
Route Map
